Barba shines on Old Boys day

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Old Boy’s Day at the Ipswich Jets is a celebration of the history of the club and of the 556 men who have played for the Jets.

But it’s also a day for the current players to be reminded about what has gone before them.

Seventeen Ipswich Jets sat in a dressing-room and listened as former captain Steve Parcell proudly stood before the 2014 team and expressed his pride in playing for the Jets during his career. As he held a current Ipswich Jets jumper in his hands he voiced his love of the club and all it has done for him.

With those words ringing in their ears the Ipswich Jets took to the field against the Redcliffe Dolphins knowing that a loss would see their current campagin come to an abrupt close.

The first half was error riddled with plenty of stop start football, as both sides felt each other out and tried to expose a weakness. The Jets gave the Dolphins plenty of football but the home team’s defence was solid.

The Dolphins scored first after coming back to the blind side for Oliver Regan to cross in the far left hand corner.

The game reached a standstill until just before half time when the Jets try scoring machine Marmin Barba scored his 18th try for the year and converted to put the Jets up 6-4 at half time.

The Jets had failed to control the ball throughout the first half and had completed only 55% of their sets.

At half time the Ipswich coaches explained what was required in the second half in a calm calculated manner. This year the 20 minutes after half time has proven the period of the game where the Jets go for the jugular of sides.

It took one minute into the second half for Kurt Capewell to stamp his try scoring authority on the game after coming in-field and going through the defence he touched down near the posts and Barba again added the extras to take the Jets out to 12-4.

The Jets then earned a 20m tap, and Wes Conlon took full advantage of the room by running another 50 and finding the fleet footed Barba who caught some Dolphins in his net as he sped away to score.

‘Marmin the Destroyer’ wasn’t done yet and took off on another run down field beating defenders all over the place to score his third try and in the space of 12 minutes the Jets had gone to 24-4.

The Dolphins had some fight left in their season and scored a great team try when danger-man Cameron Cullen scored and got the Dolphins moving in the second half back to 24-14 with 10 minutes to go.

The Jets iced the win with hard working Jets’ warrior Keiron Lander scoring a try with nine minutes to go for a 30-14 lead.

The Dolphins scored two late tries to Zach Strasser and Oliver Regan right on full time.